A World Unseen
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day three hundred and ninety-seven:  rmm 7/8  When she was little, she loved no story more than Little Star and the bright place...


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 18th cycle. Now cycle 19!_

_**READ MY MIND SET** - __I've been wanting to do something like this, in some way, for a while now. Listening to the song "Read My Mind" by the Killers, there were a set of lines I thought might be good for inspiration, so...here we are! There will be EIGHT, four in the first week of this cycle, four in the third/last.  
_**TODAY:** _"A World Unseen"_

* * *

**"A World Unseen"  
Young Rachel & Dads **

She heard the same stories growing up that all the other kids did… Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin… But there was one fairy tale she loved most of all. It had a seemingly never ending well of new details available to her favorite storyteller, her dear Pop.

After getting into her bed, sat up and all ready to listen, she'd beg Pop to tell her about the 'shiny place.' She didn't remember the first time she'd heard about it all, but she knew she'd been very young. Pop would never deny the request to hear more about it.

The story may have always been different, but the beginning remained the same. "Just for you, Little Star, there's a place out there that shines…" She would smile so very bright at that. At times she would request an 'episode' in particular. Her favorite was 'The Lights,' because what better story could there be for the shiny place? After a number of telling, both teller and audience knew it word for word.

Pop would start his story at night; there was no better way with this story, because how else would Little Star see the lights? So on a clear night, Little Star (and her two favorite fathers) would find their long journey at last to have paid off, when their carriage would come to break out of the darkness which surrounded them to land in a place that was so bright it sparkled, just like Little Star's eyes when she saw it. They could have offered all the sweets in the world and she wouldn't have bothered to tear her eyes away from what she saw. It was as though the lights just went on forever, high above and left and right.

There were so many places Little Star wanted to go, too many for her to choose from, so for this time they wouldn't choose. No, instead she would be placed on top of her tall father's shoulders, and then the three of them would walk along this brightly lit path and discover it, explore it. Little Star would point to the left, to the right, up above and down below, and her small father would reveal everything her curious mind wanted to know. After so much exploration though, Little Star would find her eyes had grown so heavy and she just couldn't ask any more of the bright lights. But it was alright because even as she fell asleep, on her tall father's shoulders, the bright lights would follow her into her dreams, keeping away all the shadows and the nightmares.

At this point young Rachel would be nodding off, ready to lie down and go to sleep, feeling safe and anxious to dream. It had never dawned on her, not for a while, that such a place could exist in real life, that she, like Little Star, could discover the lights stretching all around her and all the other places part of Little Star's adventures. She'd dreamed of it, oh, countless times, but she was certain that she'd never truly get to see it with her own eyes, feel it under her feet… until shortly before her sixth birthday.

They had gone to the mall, and she had gotten a warm new coat, boots, hat, mittens, scarf… She felt like a princess in them, more so than usual. It was the next purchase that threw suspicion into her mind: something was up. They got her a new suitcase, and a small bag she could carry over her shoulder. A suitcase… why a suitcase? They had gone to Breadstix after leaving the store and as she munched on her third breadstick she'd asked why she needed a suitcase. Her fathers had shared a look, a smile, and what Rachel would come to know as their 'she's about to get loud' look, before looking back to her.

So Pop had told her that, as a present for her upcoming birthday, the three of them were going on a trip. Already this was getting her attention; she never got to go with them before. When she asked where they were going, another look was shared before Pop answered her, in the same voice from her bedtime stories… "Just for you, Little Star, there's a place out there that shines…"

The half-eaten stick fell out of her small hand. "Chew, swallow," Dad begged her before she could say a word or make a sound. Rachel had done as told and, once she was free to speak, she squeaked.

"It's real?" she had never heard such good news. She got a double nod, and she sat up, repeating louder. "It's real?"

"It's real," Pop confirmed.

"And we're gonna go?" she was almost standing up on the bench.

"Next week," Dad confirmed… and Rachel gave a high-pitched cry of joy, hopping about. Her fathers were not even regretting unloading this information in public… Their daughter was happy, and that was all they wanted.

She was the first ready to leave when the day came. They'd timed it just right so they could arrive at night. Rachel slept through a lot of the journey so they could wake her as they neared. When the lights reached her eyes, she had at last become Little Star. It was the first time Rachel Berry would set foot in New York City, and it was not going to be the last… She belonged to the shiny place.

THE END

**_

* * *

_**

**_[A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, story alert won't get you anything! ;)]_**


End file.
